1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to techniques to facilitate licensing for software products. More specifically, the present invention relates to a method and an apparatus that uses digital certificates to facilitate enforcement of licensing terms for a software product after the software product is delivered.
2. Related Art
A software product is often distributed to customers in a number of possible configurations, which provide differing levels of functionality. The specific configuration which is shipped to a customer is generally determined by the specific requirements of the customer, and the amount that the customer is willing to pay for an associated software license. Different product configurations are typically associated with different stock-keeping units (SKUs), wherein SKUs are unique numeric identifiers which identify specific product configurations.
Conventionally, different product SKUs of a product line are generated by: (1) producing different packagings of the code (for example, by removing code related to unsupported features), or (2) through product license keys, which are commonly entered by a user to enable a program to operate.
Producing different packagings of the code is a cumbersome process, which can greatly complicate the task of distributing software. Furthermore, in either of the above-described approaches, if a customer violates the terms of the licensing agreement, there is no easy way to stop the customer from using the software product.
Hence, what is needed is a method and an apparatus that facilitates distributing different configurations of a software product in a manner that allows the distributor to enforce terms of a licensing agreement for the software product.